Pont du Diable
— — a thousand years of pilgrim feet and the same green water.
Not only on a wall.
“Two stone arches over the Hérault, where the gorge widens and the limestone goes pale. Benedictine monks from Aniane and Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert built it in the early eleventh century, among the oldest medieval bridges in France. The pilgrim road from Arles to Santiago de Compostela crosses here, and has for nearly a thousand years. The river underneath stays green most of the year, the colour of bottle glass held to light. Locals swim from the rocks below in summer. The bridge takes no notice.
Pont du Diable, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
The place, in three passes.
The Pont du Diable spans the Hérault River where the gorges open below the medieval village of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, in the Languedoc of southern France. Built between 1025 and 1031 by Benedictine monks from the abbeys of Aniane and Gellone, it is one of the oldest surviving Romanesque bridges in France. Two stone arches carry the road from Aniane to Saint-Jean-de-Fos across the river, roughly forty kilometres west of Montpellier. The bridge has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998 as part of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France, along the Via Tolosana, the pilgrim path from Arles toward the Pyrenees.
The two arches are unequal, the larger noticeably wider than the smaller, and the pale limestone was quarried from the cliffs of the gorge itself. The Romanesque builders left a triangular cutwater on the central pier to break the current of the Hérault when it rises in autumn. The road across is single-lane, paved with stones worn smooth by nearly a thousand years of feet, hooves, and cartwheels. The cliffs above are the same limestone, terraced with garrigue and the occasional juniper. The bridge has been repaired and re-pointed many times, but the original stones from around 1030 still carry the load.
The bridge is part of the Grand Site du Pont du Diable, a protected area with a visitor centre, a riverside parking lot, and a free shuttle that runs up to the medieval village of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert in summer, about four kilometres upstream. Road traffic on the bridge itself is restricted, and most visitors walk across. The Hérault below is a popular swimming spot, with rocky platforms on either bank. Local authorities post warnings every summer about jumping from the bridge or the cliffs, where the water is deep but the currents and submerged rocks have caused fatalities. Spring and early autumn carry the gentlest light and the quietest crowds, while July and August fill the river beaches by mid-morning.